THESIS PROPOSAL

Topic: Exploring the relationship between democracy and culture in Vietnam

By: Hanh Duc Dao
Supervisor: To be determined

Introduction and problem formulation

In recent decades, one of the biggest issues concerned and interested by the international
community, organizations, and nations in the world is human rights (basically democracy and
freedom) which mainly only appear in developed countries and nearly do not exist in
developing countries. Vietnam is no exception to mention above. Although this nation had
signed the international convention on human rights, the authority of nation constantly has
violated democracy, freedom and other different human rights. International organizations,
nations and concerning associations have condemned and forced Vietnam to implement its
promised commitments.
One of the most concerning and interesting countries in democratic movement in Vietnam is
Norway. Few Norwegians had come and directly talked with some people who incessantly
fight for this. On April 2001, there was a significant event to occur in Vietnam in which
international community has been interested and has watched this development. Norwegian
Member of Parliament, Lars Rise had a visiting to Vietnam for three days. He had affirmed
his meeting with representatives of Vietnam authorities before he started to meet the religious
leaders in Ho Chi Minh and Hue city. However the authority here arrested him and expelled
him with his delegation out of Vietnam. His agenda meeting had been cancelled right after
this incident. (http://www.fva.org/200104/story04.htm)
“We do not appreciate the way we have been treated by Vietnamese authorities and we will
now report the incident to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We know that Vietnam
has signed the international convention on human rights and we are concerned about how
the paragraphs in the convention is being followed up”, says Lars Rise. The above event
reiterated on march 2007 when three Norwegian arrived at the monastery in Ho Chi Minh
City to visit monk here. Vietnamese communist party constantly is repressive violently
democratic movement of Vietnamese patriots in recent time. It can be said that human rights
in Vietnam become more important than ever before.
Soviet Union was cradle of world communism but also right this country communism was
destroyed and leading to the ruin of total communism bloc in Eastern Europe. Some argues
that the collapse of communism is due to the doctrine itself to make an error. And at the
moment in the world, communism has only existed four countries communism, China,

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Vietnam, northern Korea, and Cuba. This is not by chance that three of which are located in
Asia. That is because Asian nations have been influenced by Confucianism original from
China until nowadays.
In order to understand why the power of communism is still strong and effective in VN
although the human right has been violated, and people do not have the freedom of speech,
my research question in this project will be:
Which influences does the Vietnamese culture have on the democracy in Vietnam?
The objectives to understand this problem are:

 Understand the root of the democracy problem in VN

 It might pinpoint a new approach for a better democracy in VN

 Apply theories in an academic research

Project Structure
The structure of the project will be:
1. Introduction and problem formulation
2. Methodology
2.1. Introduction to methodology
2.2. My approach and theories used: I intend to conduct in-depth interviews with three
person to get different perspectives on democracy:

 Mr. Nguyen Gia Kieng: He is a Vietnamese French who was affected by

democracy deficiency in Vietnam

 Vietnamese person in Vietnam

 A Dane in Denmark

3. Theoretical review
3.1. Review on literatures of democracy
3.1.1. Concept of democracy
3.1.2. The link between democracy – economic development- civic education
3.2. Culture theory(Geert Hofstede)
3.2.1. Culture concept
3.2.2. Culture dimensions and their links to politic system/education/social issues

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 3.3. Literature review on the relations between cultures and democracy
3.3.1. Current studies in the relations between culture and democracy in general
3.3.2. Current studies in the culture and democracy relationship in Vietnam to date
4. Current situation in Vietnam
4.1. Economic
4.2. Democracy
4.3. Civic education
5. Vietnamese culture and the influences to democracy
5.1. Analyze Vietnamese culture based on Hofstede’s dimensions
5.2. Explanation from the core culture value (Confucianism)
5.3. Relate the Vietnamese culture to the democracy and education
6. Discussion and reflection on relation between democracy and culture issue
7. Summary and Conclusion

References
I intend to write up the thesis with the following timeframe (From May 2008 to October
2008):

No. Activities Tentative time Expected outcome

(Year 2008)

1 Literature review May – June Chapter 1, 2, 3

2 Conduct in-depth interviews First two weeks of July Interview notes

3 Analyze data Last two weeks of July Chapter 4

4 Write up the first draft August Chapter 5, 6, 7

5 Finalize the thesis September The final draft

6 Defend October Defended thesis